A Carnival For Those Who Dream

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Everyone knows my favorite season in Florida isn't really a season; it's an event that runs 26 nights from the end of September through Halloween. An event that I have attended every year since 2004. But this year, I'm going to experience it in a whole new way.

Last Tuesday, I auditioned for a "scareactor" position at Halloween Horror Nights. And I was fortunate enough to be cast!

In memory of the past seven years of attending as a guest, here's some pics (in terrible resolution, I might add) from HHN 14 through HHN 20.

HHN 14 (2004): 2X The FearBillie (right) and me (left) with a pumpkin friend in the corn maze that connected both parks that year

Monday, July 4, 2011

In honor of Fourth of July, I wanted to share this wonderfully written email from my grampy - the original family writer.

Dear
Ones:

The stuff
that saturates newspapers and e-mail this time of year set off some
reflections. As a kid, the Fourth of July was to me second in
importance only to Christmas. Beginning
with our January birthdays, my brother and I saved our pennies
for the day in late June when we would spend hours in Klingansmith's
store laboriously selecting fireworks. We sought the biggest
bang for our buck well before the phrase was invented. And year after
year, Bob and I staged one great Fourth of July celebration after
another.

But
my most memorable Fourth of July, ever, was in 1945.

As
you know, I was a Navy pilot. In late 1944, I was assigned to a
squadron that flew large, four-engined airplanes equipped for aerial
mapping. On the morning of July 4, 1945, ours was one of four
squadron planes that took off from Iwo Jima and set a northerly
course for the island of Honshu, Japan. We had been told
that battered elements of the Imperial Japanese Fleet might
be hiding along the shore of Tokyo Bay. We were to fly up to
Tokyo's front door and try to find and photograph them.

As
we neared Honshu, wispy cirrus began appearing above us and
below, a blanket of clouds could be seen at 10,000 feet covering
the land ahead. Shortly, a dozen P-51 Army fighters assigned
to fly cover for us materialized, dropped their auxiliary tanks and
took up their positions. Ahead, someone spotted the snow-clad cone
of Mt. Fuji poking up through the gray blanket which by then obscured
everything below.

The blanket
extended as far as we could see, so as we neared the most promising
target area, we decided to go down and find out what lay beneath.
We popped out of the cloud layer at about 7,500 feet only to find
another thick layer below at two or three thousand feet. Mt. Fuji
now presented us with a view of only its middle - a truncated cone
suspended between cloud layers which obscured both base and summit..

Our
chances of locating and photographing anything on the ground appeared to be
nil. We were flying in the white middle layer of an Oreo - socked
in above and socked in below. Nevertheless, our quartet split
into pairs, in an attempt to cover opposite shores of Tokyo Bay
simultaneously. A half hour of nothing followed - no flak, no enemy
fighters. We just droned along, unsure of where we were, with clouds
above and below. Radio traffic began picking up. The P-51 guys
began muttering about fuel. This was mission was futile, crazy, not worth
the risk, a waste of time. Everybody wanted to bag it and go
home.

Then, "Jesus,
look at that!"

Dead
ahead was a rapidly widening hole in the blanket below. And
there, bathed in rain and gray cloud wisps, was a large jumble of
ships lying at anchor or berthed at makeshift piers. A miracle, a million
to one shot! There followed much yelling on the intercom -
making sure that our photographers were catching every element
of the scene below. We passed over the hole in less than a minute,
then banked sharply for another pass. But the hole in the
blanket had closed.

Our
fighter escort lit out for home shortly after. We nosed
about for another half hour in the cloud sandwich hoping for another
hole, then turned South, also. Once back on Iwo, there was no
celebration. It had been a long, tense day.

Next
day, I'm told, there was an article in the New York Times headed,
"Navy Discovers Remnants of Japanese Fleet."

Friday, May 20, 2011

I'm still planning to complete the previously mentioned Soul Journaling project. However, life's gotten busy. I'm juggling a few photography projects, which I couldn't be more thrilled about.

I'm propelling myself into a world that I have little experience in. And it's awesome. I'm glad I made the final decision to put grad school on hold (after one mere semester - I know, I know). I now have time to learn photography rules and techniques... so that I can eventually break them.

It's been a long time since I've been this passionate about something. Genuinely passionate. A keep-you-up-at-night sensation that seems more appropriate for a teenage crush, but you're convinced it's a full out love affair.

My eyes see the world differently these days. Everything is a potential photo. Everything is alive, has a colorful pulse, a beautiful breath. I see quirky characters in unique scenes and common objects that bleed new rhythms. I have so many new stories to tell.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Day 3 and day 4 of Sarah Whitmire's soul journaling involved creating my "soul armor": what nourishes and protects my creative spirit. It took me a few days to think about what this entailed for me. I even made a list before I got started.

Sunshine

Laughter

Playfulness

The beach

Windchimes

Clouds

Friendships

Scented candles

Purple

Yoga and meditation

Walking, runnning, biking (being in motion)

And this is what manifested on the page.

My favorite part of this page is the little boy in the middle. He reminds me of my childhood, when I wasn't afraid to dress up in a wacky costume and enter a world of make believe. He's serious in the most playful way possible, courageous in a right-up-until-dinner time type of way.

He's my inner creative child, the one I've been shielding from the world for a good five years.

I'll continue to protect him; however, it's time he made a more regular appearance and became a bit more reliable, like his daily afternoon cartoons.

Juxtapose that childlike state with the more adult-like images on my page, and I've got the ultimate soul armor. I'm ready to run the creative gauntlet! Adieu, my good friends!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Tonight was all about "claiming your journal". Pretty sure there's no questions as to whose journal this is!

I didn't notice it at the time, but I love how the white gesso didn't quite hide the phrase "Today I feel creative" and I can still see the words "creative muse" peeking through some of the color. Misspelling my name with scrabble tiles (bottom) and the word "dictionary" (middle) still being visible was an interesting coincidence as well.

My friends Cindy and Jane are no strangers to the concept and participated in Sarah Whitmire's 22 Days of Soul Journaling back in 2008. I've been browsing her site for a few days now, and after gathering the necessary supplies from Michael's (with a 40% off coupon of course), I'm ready to begin.
﻿

My first art journal.

﻿I, too, am starting with the 22 days of art journaling prompts. When it comes to writing, I have little trouble getting off the blank page... but art? No idea. I couldn't even color between the lines in elementary school -- but hey, maybe that makes me perfectly suited for mixed media art! So, I'm really excited that this lovely woman has provided perfect starter ideas for beginning art journalists.
﻿

Who says purple "disappearing" gluesticks are just for kids?

Meditation music floating through the room and a "beach breeze" candle illuminating my desk, ﻿I completed the day 1 prompt tonight. The instructions involved gluing random dictionary pages to the first three pages of my journal, and then writing over them with the prompt "today I feel", circling words for added emphasis. I decided to rip up an extra copy of a short story I had published in 2005 and use that instead of dictionary pages. I also added a little color around the edges of the glued pages; I'm not a big fan of white.
﻿

Completed pages of "Today I Feel"

﻿What's great about these exercises is that they're totally at my own pace. And given my four to five days a week of volleyball, bi-weekly meditation classes, weekly Zumba class, the occasional at-home yoga session, a newly acquired freelance gig (emphasis on the "free"), and my full time job ... art journaling without a deadline is a welcomed experience.

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"Success: To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and in lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young."

Always at peace by the sea... in solitude's infinity... (Photo by Shelly S.)

But for now we are young; let us lie in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see... (Photo by Shelly S.)